What’s it like to Au Pair?

I was an au pair in two countries – Spain and the Czech Republic. There were a number of reasons why I decided to au pair, but one of the main reasons (if I’m honest) is that I was running out of money but didn’t want to stop traveling.  

I had two completely different experiences in the countries and although I can’t see myself being an au pair again I loved both experiences because I learned a lot and got to do a great deal of travel.

Being an au pair in the Czech Republic:
I ended up choosing a small town called Pocatky which was about 1.5 hours away from Prague. I always wanted to go to Prague – I remember I once saw a photo of Charles’ Bridge and immediately fell in love and decided that one day I would visit Prague. I was set to be teaching English in Seoul, South Korea and when my contract finally came through I freaked out and decided that I wanted to see more of Europe. I joined an au pair website and started searching for families in Prague. I ended up finding a few families that I was interested in, but ended up skyping with the host mother of the family I ended up choosing.

As I later learned when I was an au pair in Spain, it’s much more important that you choose a family you like (and host “parents”) because that will make your time much more enjoyable. My family in the Czech republic were great; I’ve visited them since, still keep in touch regularly and miss them immensely. I had a lot of fun, got to explore a lot of the Czech Republic and surrounding European countries.
 

I ended up in a really casual arrangement with my family – the boys I looked after were home schooled in the mornings and would spend most of the afternoons with me. I could take long weekends when I wanted to travel (amazing) and took on teaching some of the host mother’s English classes which was a great way to earn a little extra cash and gain some great experience. I was originally supposed to be with this family for three months, but had such a great time I extended it to six.
 

Being an au pair in Spain:
After living so far away from a city when I was in Pocatky, I had decided I wanted more of a central experience in Spain so chose to be close to Madrid. This was only a summer position and I was with the girls in the mornings and had the afternoons free. The host family gave me a monthly metro pass as well as an allowance and it was a great base to explore Spain – a highlight of which was the Alhambra – and to learn a little more Spanish.
 

This experience was slightly more challenging as only one of the two girls really spoke much English, so there was a bit of a language barrier. However, it was also really cool to see how much of an impact I had on their English and to see the younger girl experimenting a little more with the language.
 

Spanish families are quite different to those in New Zealand – just because you have kids doesn’t mean you slow down – it was not uncommon to see parents towing around small children to ice cream parlors at 11pm at night.  I also managed to find a great group of girls who were au pairs here and we had a pretty awesome social life together – it was heaps of fun. 

Why be an Au Pair?
I probably wouldn’t au pair again, just because I’m a bit older and like the idea of being slightly more independent in my travels. However, it’s a very easy way to get set up in a new country and can be incredible social, too. Depending on your family you will get to see a new side to a culture that would otherwise be difficult to be invited into. It’s pretty cool knowing you can move somewhere, have a room, have food, have some money and the opportunity to easily explore another part of the world. Depending on your language goals, being an au pair can be a great way to get extra exposure to the language you want to learn.
 

If I ever have children of my own I know that I’ll have an au pair, because it’s a great experience for them too – I noticed that children who had au pairs were a lot more confident, their language skills were better than average and it’s just a great way for them to gain an “older sibling”.
 

Has anyone else been an au pair? If so, what were your experiences like?